This is a guest post written by Alison Lowndes, Founder Trustee of AVIF, a charity that assists with sustainable development via online and on-site volunteering in rural Kenya. Alison founded AVIF in 2006.
AVIF currently has 3 volunteers from the UK and the Czech Republic living with the maasai in Amboseli, Kenya. They are helping to teach the 60 children from the community in their one room school. In this village, the women currently walk up to 18km to fetch water.
One of the villagers is spearheading an effort to dig a well and asked us for support. We didn’t know where to begin and turned to The Extraordinaries. We posted the following challenge to the network:
Challenge: “Find an inexpensive method to dig a well in eastern Kenya.”
Within a week, a third world water expert connected us to a well digging company managed and funded by a nonprofit in the US but based close to Amboseli. The drill team even consists of a few local maasai. How’s that for a perfect match?
As a result of our Extraordinary challenge, a hydrogeological survey is now being carried out to determine the necessary depth. The depth will determine the cost of the well – and for our next challenge, we’ll be asking for fundraising ideas and strategies! Thanks to The Extraordinaries, the village is on their way to having fresh water, from their own borehole well.
You may be amused at my sheer enthusiasm for The Extraordinaries, but I’ve been working with social media for years now and this is EXACTLY what the internet and ‘global social giving’ needed .. a place where we’re able to connect instantly with the kind of expertise that we need.
Amboseli Park, Kenya |
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Jackson (center) is spearheading theeffort to dig a well in his village. |
